This application is entitled to the benefit of and incorporates by reference essential subject matter disclosed in International Application No. PCT/EP00/11314 filed on Nov. 15, 2000 and German Patent Application No. 100 02 837.3 filed on Jan. 24, 2000.
The invention concerns a device for the processing of data carrier cards including a transport device with an input/output section for drawing in and dispensing a data carrier card, a write/read device for data exchange with the data carrier card, and a control device for controlling the transport device and the write/read device, with means being provided for storing data on a first card using data stored on a second card.
Data carrier cards with magnetic strips and/or integrated chips have an increasing usage as identification cards or payment means and the like. In many cases, the cards are linked to persons. Their distribution has certain underlying security regulations and it is therefore correspondingly expensive and complicated.
Card dispensers are already known which contain a card store for receiving a supply of standardized cards, which however are generally not processed before their dispensing.
Further, from DE 196 34 688 A1 a device is known, which makes possible the processing of cards, that is the reading of data stored on the card and also the storing of data, and which has a card magazine in which accepted cards are deposited and from which they can again be taken. Thereby in a cyclic manner cards can be individually processed, stored and, after an eventual second processing, can be again dispensed, with the cyclic handling of the cards however proceeding according to the first in/first out principle. A card can therefore be dispensed again only after it has run through the entire card magazine.
From EP-A-0 911 751 a device of the aforementioned kind is already known which serves for the rebooking of data from one chip card onto another. In this case two card boxes are arranged on a swing so that the card boxes can selectively be brought into alignment with the input/output section of the device. A reading head is associated with each card box. First the two cards are moved into the card boxes, with these boxes being brought one after the other into alignment with the input/output section of the apparatus. Then the cards are contacted by their respective reading heads so that data from one card can be rewritten onto the other. The expense of the apparatus for this solution is relatively high.
From EP-A-0 784 290 a further apparatus is known which likewise makes it possible to rewrite data from a magnetic strip card onto a Smart-Card. In this case, two separate card boxes are provided. One of these boxes serves for the input of a magnetic strip card which is read and subsequently moved to a store. The read data is stored. The second box serves for dispensing the Smart-Card, which is taken from a store and moved into the second card box. There the data read from the first card is taken into memory. Subsequently, the card can be dispensed to a customer. Here also the expense of the apparatus is relatively large. The practical use of the apparatus is limited.
The invention has as its object the making of a device of the aforementioned kind in such a way that the usage possibilities of a data carrier card of the above mentioned kind can be increased.
This object is solved in accordance with the invention in that the write/read device is arranged in the input/output section, in that the transport device has an intermediate card store following the input/output section and in that the storage of data on the first card takes place while the second card is held in the intermediate card store.
The processing of data carrier cards can therefore, for example, so take place that first of all the second card is inserted into the device and the data stored on it is read. Subsequently, the first card is inserted onto which data is then written under use of the data read from the second card. For example, the second card can be an identification card, which authorizes the dispensing of new cards.
The construction can, however, also be such that the data is transferred directly from one card onto another, for example, a transfer booking. Therefore, a customer can take hold of certain services with his card being charged accordingly. Subsequently, the charged amount on the card of a purchaser or, for example, of a bartender can be booked onto or deducted from another card.
The device of the invention can also be so used in that data from a card having one storage technology can be rebooked onto a card with another storage technology with the write/read device in this case for the processing of the cards being constructed with different storage media.
An essential widening of the use possibilities of the inventive device results if the transport device has associated with it a card magazine with the intermediate card store being provided with at least two separate transport paths, which individually and selectively are connectable with the input/output section and of which paths at least one can be selectively connected with the card magazine. In the case of this embodiment cards can be removed from the card magazine and for example with the help of data are enabled or personalized, which data is read from another data carrier card, which then is held in the intermediate card store, so long as it is needed. The cards removed from the card magazine, as the case may be, can also already be provided with certain permanent data. A further possibility of use results if the card magazine has a plurality of compartments each for the storing of at least one data carrier card, with the transport device and the card magazine being so adjustable that one selected compartment aligns with one transport path of the intermediate card store, and with transfer means being provided for transferring a data carrier card from the transport device into the respective compartment and/or from that compartment to the transport device. In this case a given supply of cards can be personalized or actualized in the above-described way and subsequently be put into the card magazine.
The transfer means can in this case have at least one pusher for the purpose of pushing a data carrier card into the respective compartment or to remove it from the compartment. In order to be able to correct faults in the insertion of cards into the transport device the transport device can be provided with a card turning station for turning a card about its transverse axis and/or its longitudinal axis and/or a height axis perpendicular to the plane of the card. A space saving arrangement in this case can be achieved by constructing the intermediate card store as a turning station.